2018.09.07 - Vienna, Austria

Recommended Posts

We're almost at the end! But that doesn't mean the Post Traumatic European Tour will be slowing down. Mike's playing the last full headlining show of the tour in Vienna, Austria today at the Arena Open Air Wein.

Austria has hosted Mike and Linkin Park for years. They first performed there in 2001 in Vienna, opening for the Deftones on their 'Back To School' Tour in the spring. They returned later on the Hybrid Theory European Tour in the same year to headline at the same venue they opened for the Deftones at, performing 'One Step Closer' with Wes Scantlin from Puddle Of Mudd. The band didn't make it to the country during the Meteora World Tour (though a weird festival appearance in the summer of 2004 in the country was apparently cancelled), but returned on the very first full leg of the Minutes To Midnight Tour, closing the first European run in Nickelsdorf for the NovaRock Festival, which they have played at several times now: 2007, 2011, 2012 (which was shortened due to bad weather), and most recently, in 2017 - Mike's most recent show in Austria. Outside of festivals, the band performed in Graz in 2008, twice on the A Thousand Suns Tour (Linz in 2010 and NovaRock in 2011), and twice on The Hunting Party Tour (Vienna in 2014 and the FM4 Frequency festival in 2015). Linkin Park returned to Austria again and again over the years because the country just keeps on giving, and that's expected to continue.

Watch this multicam mix of Linkin Park's performance in Vienna in 2014, featuring fresh The Hunting Party tracks like 'Guilty All The Same' and 'Final Masquerade.' Seeing Mike perform a piano version of the latter would be awesome!

Mike's last show was in Offenbach, Germany, and certainly featured some special moments. The 'Petrified' into 'I.O.U.' set returned after being skipped in Stockholm (this version of the set had its debut in Moscow - perhaps it's Mike's "second" set to play in countries he's already been in). This means songs get moved around, like 'Castle Of Glass' in the encore and 'Sorry For Now' and 'Crossing The Line' being played much earlier than usual. Other great moments from the show include the full piano version of 'Heavy' (where Mike messed up the bridge in a funny way) and a surprise 'Kenji' in the encore after requests from fans in the front row. The big surprise of the night was an unexpected one, though: Mike brought up a fan named Josie Stickdorn, a guitarist who posts fingerstyle acoustic guitar covers on her Instagram (check it out)! After seeing her performance of 'Numb' (which you can watch here), Mike gave her the stage and let her perform the track solo with the crowd. He then came back, and then they performed 'In The End' together, the song being performed in its original key for the first time on the tour. It's moments like these when you really see how caring and loving Mike is with the fans. You rarely see special moments like this where an artist will bring up a fan after seeing them play a cover - what a legend.

As per usual, we don't really know what to expect at this show. Anything could happen. Surprises have been relatively tame these last few shows, though; aside from the verse one acapella of 'A Place For My Head' in Stockholm, 'Kenji' has been the only real surprise in these sets, entirely due to the fact that it wasn't planned to be performed at any of these shows but was played by request. Mike definitely has a bunch of things up his sleeve; from the soundcheck in Stockholm alone we know 'It's Goin' Down' and 'Cigarettes' are ready to go, and he also teased 'The Catalyst' by playing the strings, too. 'Until It Breaks' has only been performed once on this tour in its entirety, and that was in Köln. Other piano versions of songs are possible, too - Mike randomly whipped out 'Wisdom, Justice, and Love' and 'Iridescent' in Moscow. Maybe because the tour is coming to a close he's easing up on the surprises and is saving some stuff for next month's run - but you never know!

Watch Mike perform 'Numb' and 'In The End' with fan Josie Stickdorn in Offenbach! Must be a really amazing moment for her to be apart of the show like that. And she killed it!

Is anyone going to the show? After this Mike finally wraps up a month-long run of shows across Asia and Europe with a final opening set for Thirty Seconds To Mars in Milan, Italy tomorrow. There's huge potential for a collaboration (MARS performed a mashup of 'In The End' and 'Hail To The Victor' at a soundcheck in Poland on their current tour), so keep your eyes peeled for that. Mike and the crew will be taking a break for a month after this show, but will return full force with an expansive run across North America on the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour, which just added a stop in Cincinnati. The tour has 23 dates over the course of 39 days - if you thought Mike was keeping us on edge for Europe and Asia, just you wait for this one.

We'll be keeping you updated on everything that happens at this show, so be be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates, and join the LPLive Discord for discussion with fans around the world (a couple members from the Discord will be at this show - be sure to say hi)! We just launched the new LPLive Archive YouTube Channel that is loaded with hours of rare content from the Linkin Park world, and we'll also be uploading videos from the Post Traumatic Tour there, too. Be sure to subscribe!Check out the rest of Mike Shinoda's touring schedule here.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I was there, it was a crazy show. I wonder why the drummer was absent.

Yeah, amazing show! Great vibe

LPLive's show entry says:

"Dan was not present at the show. He flew to Israel to perform at the Meteor Festival with his band Tatran that day. This was the second time Dan had left mid-tour to perform (flying to Israel and back between Leeds and Köln earlier in the tour) and the first time he's missed a show since joining the crew. Matt's setup was on the right side of the stage where Dan's drumkit would typically be set up."

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Reminds me of LP live at Amsterdam last year. During Sharp Edges Mike was dancing his ass off at the side of the stage and when he came back on stage for the rest of the encore he was having a beer. Just having fun and everything. Also with Chester, that's where the whole 5 thumbs talk comes from off the OML Live album between SE and Numb.

So good on Mike and here's to hoping the rest of the boys are also doing good!